Last Pitches Before the First Vote

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Sights and Sounds From Final Full Day of the Iowa Campaign

Sights and sounds from an early morning rally by Hillary Clinton to a 'Tonight Show' appearance by Mike Huckabee, presidential candidates traveled across Iowa and to California in the final full day of campaigning in Iowa. All times listed in the video are Central Time.

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Huckabee's campaign, which is also beginning to prepare for a race in New Hampshire that will not include a ready base of evangelicals, is running an ad there touting his support for tax cuts but not airing a spot called "Values" that emphasizes his record on opposing abortion. An ad earlier this year touting him as a "Christian leader" also did not appear in the Granite State.

As the candidates sprinted for the finish line, there was an unmistakable intensity gap between the parties.

In Coralville, near the University of Iowa, about 1,500 Iowans packed into a hotel ballroom on Wednesday afternoon for Obama, with 100 and counting filling an overflow room. Meanwhile, Clinton wooed 1,000 in nearby Cedar Rapids.

The Republican candidates had far smaller crowds. Romney, for example, spoke to about 75 people at an elementary school and then held a rally in a Cedar Rapids airport with about 50 supporters.

But the campaign will be decided on the ground.

The Clinton campaign has distributed more than 600 snow shovels to prepare for a potential weather surprise Thursday night. It has delivered bushels of salt to its field offices in case of ice. And about 4,500 people are ready to drive others to caucus sites, said Iowa state director Teresa Vilmain.

Romney's campaign made 25,000 telephone calls from the state headquarters on Wednesday, hoping to blunt Huckabee's impassioned support with a superior organization designed to make sure his voters show up at their designated caucus.

And for those Iowans who did not leave the warmth of their homes because of the single-digit temperatures, the campaigns barraged them with recorded telephone messages so they didn't feel left out.

Anne Wiskerchen, a communications specialist in Cedar Rapids, reported the following: "My officemate just called her home answering machine, and 27 of the 28 messages were from political candidates. Craziness!"

Kelly Shriver Kolln, an independent from Cedar Rapids, said she received five calls from campaigns on Wednesday morning -- from Paul, from the Iowa attorney general endorsing Obama, from Romney and from business publisher Steve Forbes on behalf of Giuliani. An actual person called on Romney's behalf, too.

Kolln said she suspects the campaigns that offer voters a ride to their caucus locations could prove influential.

"If you're getting a ride, you may have that candidate in mind. . . . The weather is horrible here. To me, that's money well spent." As for Kolln, she says if she can get a babysitter for caucus night, she will walk in uncommitted and make her decision on the spot.

Staff writers Perry Bacon Jr. and Shailagh Murray in Iowa, washingtonpost.com producer Ed O'Keefe in Iowa, and Matthew Mosk in Washington contributed to this report.